State of USH - What's Next?

[Viator]

This is genuinely devastating to watch. Like wow, this is painful.

Oh don’t worry, the worst has yet to begun.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Oh don’t worry, the worst has yet to begun.

WOTW sets next

I really....really hope there is a plan with the Tram...because I just don't understand why all at once they are doing so much and no rumored replacements

 

[Viator]

Grading work is commencing more along the lines, and new markers are beginning to pop up over with the area near the suspended bridge connecting ET and Curious.

 

[bdubsCEO]

Is it true that we’re losing our iconic sign to the hotel expansion ):

 

[Viator]

I have been under the assumption of demolition. They’ve been intentionally letting the side facing the Hilton and Sheraton lose its lighting brightness, fizzling and reducing down since May of last year.

I’d like to be wrong, but the area should be getting regraded for the Westside Security Facility

 

[BriefCasey]

(Couldn't find one of the post explosion reactions)

View attachment 28792
Is it true that we’re losing our iconic sign to the hotel expansion ):

That would be a devastating loss, everyone knows this from their way out from the park.

 

[Freak]

With rumors off and on about an expansion on Falls over the past several years, I wonder if they’ll be willing to even give that space up for the park? We just saw them film Jumanji there on Falls Lake this past week.

 

[Jerroddragon]

They are moving the Mill and Tech Building to the studio Tour, WOTW sets are rumored to be moved and or just gone later this year for more studios space and Park lake (where Creature was filmed) is rumored to become sound stages.

From what it sounds like to me, is the lower lot is where most of the next new attractions will go besides the simpsons redo.

In some universal where Universal had more money, I could see them moving more things off site if they had the WB lot down the streets but since that door is closed. My guess is the Lower lot will add more things over the years and the Tram area will not be used for more theme park stuff outside attractions for the Tram

 

[Jerroddragon]

Just went to Disneyland

DCA had insane food lines for Lunar New Years

I encourage USH leaders to go on a field trip and see that this time of year does not need to be this dead. Throw in some food boths, live music, Kung Fu Panda meet and greets and hopefully the money comes in.

But if Disney can sucker people into waiting an hour ish for food, it seems like the demand is there if you bring items people want to eat and even some small offerings in the park can make it more packed.

 

[Clive]

Just went to Disneyland

DCA had insane food lines for Lunar New Years

I encourage USH leaders to go on a field trip and see that this time of year does not need to be this dead. Throw in some food boths, live music, Kung Fu Panda meet and greets and hopefully the money comes in.

But if Disney can sucker people into waiting an hour ish for food, it seems like the demand is there if you bring items people want to eat and even some small offerings in the park can make it more packed.

One thing I will give you is that I don't know why they ditched Lunar New Year at USH. It wasn't exactly an enormous spend, and it appeared to be popular with guests. For all the emphasis they're putting on locals and APs lately due to the international tourism downturn, it feels silly they don't try bringing it back.

 

[Jerroddragon]

One thing I will give you is that I don't know why they ditched Lunar New Year at USH. It wasn't exactly an enormous spend, and it appeared to be popular with guests. For all the emphasis they're putting on locals and APs lately due to the international tourism downturn, it feels silly they don't try bringing it back.

I just have to assume its because of all the spending from Epic...plus Texas/HHN in Vegas and now England.

Like I get it USH isn't the biggest resort and can't get huge dollars but, after HHN doing soooo well last year and Fan fest working out. You'd think they see events help bring in money for the park

I mean Knotts had no one then they do the Peanuts celebration and bam back to being busy, Disneyland is always busy but DCA seemed sooo packed with people and the lines for food just blew my mind

So the food can't suck but if they put effort into an event, and bring some food and have have some fun meet and greets and just like one live band and maybe a DJ for weekends. I think it could bring lots of people in

Six Flags just started a promotion for Friday nights at the park, and whenever I went the place had people coming out and they aren't doing anything but being open late (9 PM)

Hopefully next year the USH leadership can fight for one new event and if lunar new years works out not only can it come back but also they can push to make a food and wine event before fan fest and bam....the park will only have a few dead weeks a year

 

[Clive]

I just have to assume its because of all the spending from Epic...plus Texas/HHN in Vegas and now England.

Like I get it USH isn't the biggest resort and can't get huge dollars but, after HHN doing soooo well last year and Fan fest working out. You'd think they see events help bring in money for the park

I mean Knotts had no one then they do the Peanuts celebration and bam back to being busy, Disneyland is always busy but DCA seemed sooo packed with people and the lines for food just blew my mind

So the food can't suck but if they put effort into an event, and bring some food and have have some fun meet and greets and just like one live band and maybe a DJ for weekends. I think it could bring lots of people in

Six Flags just started a promotion for Friday nights at the park, and whenever I went the place had people coming out and they aren't doing anything but being open late (9 PM)

Hopefully next year the USH leadership can fight for one new event and if lunar new years works out not only can it come back but also they can push to make a food and wine event before fan fest and bam....the park will only have a few dead weeks a year

I'm actually under the impression that it was cut due to their putting more event resources into Fan Fest, which comes with direct ROI via the hard ticket sales. However... that arrangement still leaves February fairly empty, especially when there aren't any new attractions to promote.

 

[Viator]

I'm actually under the impression that it was cut due to their putting more event resources into Fan Fest, which comes with direct ROI via the hard ticket sales. However... that arrangement still leaves February fairly empty, especially when there aren't any new attractions to promote.

Me and Jonathan talked about the hole it leaves back in the day, and it really does feel like a weird element to not capitalize on. Especially in comparison to other competitors like Knotts and Disneyland, who capitalize on the dead period as a means of maintaining the sustained presence.

It's why I kind of really vouch for a return of the Top Chef food festival idea they had proposed prior to the park closing of COVID. Having a food based festival tied with one of your stronger brands in relation to that, feels like a very cheap and easy way to do *something*.

 

[Jerroddragon]

I'm actually under the impression that it was cut due to their putting more event resources into Fan Fest, which comes with direct ROI via the hard ticket sales. However... that arrangement still leaves February fairly empty, especially when there aren't any new attractions to promote.

More?

Interesting, I really kind of wonder what those are. Because the current fan fest looks like it should cost the same as last year....I mean unless the One Piece show cost insane money. We have currently have about the same amount of attractions so I hope the money is going into lots of things not announced yet

Hopefully next year, the money will make sense and they can test it.

Me and Jonathan talked about the hole it leaves back in the day, and it really does feel like a weird element to not capitalize on. Especially in comparison to other competitors like Knotts and Disneyland, who capitalize on the dead period as a means of maintaining the sustained presence.

It's why I kind of really vouch for a return of the Top Chef food festival idea they had proposed prior to the park closing of COVID. Having a food based festival tied with one of your stronger brands in relation to that, feels like a very cheap and easy way to do *something*.

This year it also leaves a big hole....they have Hollywood and Dine...just closed. Like its just closed because they don't think its worth staffing to have it open. To me that signals they think this year even more they should cut back
Plus having events now won't only bring people in but help when attractions are down, if we had a show in the plaza right now it would be nice since WW is closed and its the only big live show they have


I don't know if its a rights thing either but they have two Harry Potter events during the year but never do anything outside of merch...If they can do more it would be nice for the Fantastic beasts to be out during one of those events or maybe next year after we have a hippogriff they can do a Fantasic beast show. But even the harry potter events could get a little extra and im sure you could advertise it right it could draw in more people as well.

 

[Mad Dog]

I just have to assume its because of all the spending from Epic...plus Texas/HHN in Vegas and now England.

Like I get it USH isn't the biggest resort and can't get huge dollars but, after HHN doing soooo well last year and Fan fest working out. You'd think they see events help bring in money for the park

I mean Knotts had no one then they do the Peanuts celebration and bam back to being busy, Disneyland is always busy but DCA seemed sooo packed with people and the lines for food just blew my mind

So the food can't suck but if they put effort into an event, and bring some food and have have some fun meet and greets and just like one live band and maybe a DJ for weekends. I think it could bring lots of people in

Six Flags just started a promotion for Friday nights at the park, and whenever I went the place had people coming out and they aren't doing anything but being open late (9 PM)

Hopefully next year the USH leadership can fight for one new event and if lunar new years works out not only can it come back but also they can push to make a food and wine event before fan fest and bam....the park will only have a few dead weeks a year

You're probably onto the behind the curtain reasons for the frugal approach. Even Disney experienced this as highlighted by the "Thank You, Shanghai" buzzword at the time.

Lets take a look.

As you mentioned, UK new park development, Frisco, HHN Vegas, left over Epic. Drains budget/revenue/expansion/development/entertainment etc. money.

Comcast said Epic did well in increasing guest spending and extending vacations. All that is well, but that was expected. What was undoubtedly not expected though, was that attraction performance would remain so poor even after 10 months since softs, and that Universal would have to put a fairly low capacity ceiling on ticket sales. I'd imagine attendance and revenue are significantly under projections. Universal would be getting a lot more overall revenue (tickets/hotels/food, bev,/merch, if there were 30,00 to 40,000 guests in the park instead of 15,000 to 25,000 daily. Common sense says this is a major revenue shortfall.

With Epic capacity far short of expected capacity, they have to fast track new attractions/experiences to get the park up to snuff. Plus, I'd imagine maintenance costs are through the roof since every attraction, some more than others, has significant issues.

International tourism is down significantly. Even Disney just mentioned it's affecting their revenue/operations.

When this stuff happens, the spreadsheet warriors in management get more authority. It happens with almost all companies. Bottom line is stuff gets cut that normally wouldn't and frugal attitudes rule behind the scenes.

 

[Jerroddragon]

You're probably onto the behind the curtain reasons for the frugal approach. Even Disney experienced this as highlighted by the "Thank You, Shanghai" buzzword at the time.

Lets take a look.

As you mentioned, UK new park development, Frisco, HHN Vegas, left over Epic. Drains budget/revenue/expansion/development/entertainment etc. money.

Comcast said Epic did well in increasing guest spending and extending vacations. All that is well, but that was expected. What was undoubtedly not expected though, was that attraction performance would remain so poor even after 10 months since softs, and that Universal would have to put a fairly low capacity ceiling on ticket sales. I'd imagine attendance and revenue are significantly under projections. Universal would be getting a lot more overall revenue (tickets/hotels/food, bev,/merch, if there were 30,00 to 40,000 guests in the park instead of 15,000 to 25,000 daily. Common sense says this is a major revenue shortfall.

With Epic capacity far short of expected capacity, they have to fast track new attractions/experiences to get the park up to snuff. Plus, I'd imagine maintenance costs are through the roof since every attraction, some more than others, has significant issues.

International tourism is down significantly. Even Disney just mentioned it's affecting their revenue/operations.

When this stuff happens, the spreadsheet warriors in management get more authority. It happens with almost all companies. Bottom line is stuff gets cut that normally wouldn't and frugal attitudes rule behind the scenes.

And to add on to that Fast and Furious is not opening until Summer

I mean, maybe they knew when they were building it it would take this long but....it feels like it should be open by now but things outside their control are holding it back

So that Revenue they were hoping for just lost and I've been going to the parks every week....its just dead and last summer started the effect of less people coming to the parks
I just by next year things work out enough to try some more plushing of events in the park and hopefully people show up so we can have the parks getting more things to do as well even if just for the short term because unless they make a walking attraction or redo he dreamworks show...we have like 2.5 years or more until the next BIG attractions comes to USH after the coaster opens and SNW boost only lasted 16 months and that was an entire new land (along with the fact the economy was better then and more tourist were coming as you mentioned). So I hope they see AP's are the best way to get cash for now